Abstract

There have been few platform-based studies of the work-home relationship in the North Sea oil industry. This article explores the asymmetrical power relations and institutionalized inequalities that characterize the offshore industry. Focussing on men and women contract workers, it examines the economic and time-space pressures they face, both offshore and onshore. These workers have no employment security and have to cope with the problems of working away from home for two-week stretches. While many prioritized the economic and temporal compensations of offshore work, in practice, work spilled over into personal life in various negative ways.